Travel around the world? Never get out of
your sweatpants and old tee? Have endless cups of coffee while staring
into vacuum? Get addicted to daytime soaps on TV?
All
alluring pastimes, but there is only so much coffee you can drink, and
more than an hour of daytime TV may be seriously injurious to your
health! Assuming that you still plan to get back to work outside of your
household duties at some point of time in the future, what do you do,
in the meantime, to keep the brain rust and body moss away? How do you
make your hibernation a productive rejuvenation?In today’s job world, a
lot of us grapple with these issues. Some take a sabbatical to explore
other interests. Some go on forced breaks due to now commonplace re-org
and downsizing exercises. Some of us take a break to raise families –
and those are not necessarily only women any more. Being a ‘Mother’, in
the sense of a primary care-giver, is no longer a gender-specific role.
As I meet more and more men taking a sabbatical or a longish paternity
leave, I realise that career breaks will increasingly become a
gender-neutral phenomenon.
Everybody –
tired of work pressures, deadlines, commutes, appraisals – relishes the
idea of a break, and then promptly freaks out a month into that break!
The demons that come to haunt the new homebody are many – what will I do
tomorrow and day after and next week? Will I ever get a job again? What
are people thinking of me? Am I spending too much time on Facebook now?
Should I take up a data-entry or envelope-stuffing job? How do I stop
freaking out?
I went through all that
and more. There were good days and bad days. But it was a choice I had
made based on my personal priorities. Now that I am out of my
self-imposed break and back at work, I look back on my hibernating years
with fondness. I meet others who are at different phases of their break
and wondering what happens next. Here are ten tips I would like to
share with them.
Stay happy and count
your blessings: How many people get the option to take a break? If you
have the option, you have done something right – with your financial
planning, family relationships and with your own inner self. Be happy
that you have the freedom to choose. If you are on a break to raise your
children, make your uninterrupted time with them count. Enjoy being
with them instead of reevaluating your break every hour of the day. At
the same time, know that children will still grow at their own pace –
just because you are teaching your pre-schooler Math personally, do not
expect him or her to become a genius in a year!
Rekindle passions:
Remember your childhood passions? Tennis, guitar, embroidery, or
karate? Rekindle those fires. Times have never been better for adults to
go back to their hobbies with plenty of classes around. Fulfilling
hobbies is what makes you a complete person – the patience, agility, and
focus that hobbies require will take you a long way in any sphere,
whether work or personal. The willingness to try, unlearn, relearn, and
learn better ways is a skill highly valued in workplaces today.
Read: The
single-most enriching way to stay connected with the world outside,
when you are locked indoors with a newborn baby, is through reading.
Bedtime stories make a fascinating read too, but you might also want to
stay in touch with your work world by reading relevant books,
publications, and blog articles. You will emerge a much more
knowledgeable person at the end of your break.
Travel:
Imagine off-season travel, discounted rates, and no crowds – all
because you no longer have to worry about the long weekends and leave
sanctions! Travel expands the horizons of your mind, shows you new ways
of solving problems, and makes great memories to liven up busy workdays
in the future!
Challenge yourself: One
of the dangers of a too-comfortable routine is becoming lazy and
risk-averse. To counter that, challenge yourself to accomplish something
outside your comfort zone. If you have not really been a sportsperson,
try a few table-tennis lessons. If you have never learnt music, try a
musical instrument for a few months. If you get good at it, you will
feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment, which will also carry you
through your first job interviews after the break! If you fail
miserably, you will become a much more compassionate parent to your
child who just cannot seem to master coloring within the lines!
Stay connected:
In today’s social media era, it is a bigger challenge to disconnect at
times than to stay connected! During the break, these connections become
your window into the world your formerly inhabited. It is good to know
what is happening in your area of work expertise and stay connected with
colleagues and other experts in the field. Become a member of a few
work-connected organisations and attend their events. It will help you
feel more up-to-date and not isolated.
Upgrade your skills: The
break may be a fantastic time to relook at your career aspirations,
current skills, and new developments in the world. There are innumerable
resources – free and online – available easily today to learn a new
programming language, new design software, to get new certification or
even acquire career-changing new skills.
Look for a good fit:
Towards the intended end of your break, start looking for opportunities
where your break, and what you did during the break, will be considered
a big positive and not something that you will need to apologetically
justify. For example, while hiring at Cloud Mentor – an education
startup – we always preferred mothers returning from a break. Their
strengths worked in favour of our venture – they were committed,
responsible, they understood children and education. You may be in a
great position to understand and explain a growing market segment –
children and parents. Consider that as a great asset on your resume.
There are companies that welcome mothers returning to work and
specialised job sites showcasing flexible options, freelancing
opportunities, and project-based work. Use these to find the best
possible fit with your requirements.
Volunteer or intern:
Explore volunteering to get back into the work routine. Skill-based
volunteering gives you a good opportunity to sharpen your skills again,
feel productive, and also contribute to a worthy cause. Organisational
structures are in a flux today and you can even intern at startups and
small businesses. A stint at a fast-growing startup can get you
completely in shape with no ill effects of a break left anywhere in your
skills, speed or resume!
Consider entrepreneurship: By
taking a break and by working hard to come back, you have already
demonstrated entrepreneurial traits of risk-taking and perseverance. Why
not build upon that foundation and launch your own venture if you have
an idea and skills to make it work? In fact, you can still retain some
flexibility of routine and creative freedom by being your own boss.
Launching a venture is akin to bringing up a baby – with all its
attendant sleepless nights, hectic days, ecstatic joys, unfathomable
temper tantrums, ups and downs, and looking forward to a great future
together!
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